Community Care

Our experienced Mental Health & Mental Capacity team advises clients throughout the South West on a wide range of issues relating to accessing and funding community care. Finding and accessing vital care can be a real challenge, whether you need care yourself or are seeking to provide for the needs of a loved one. We can help. Our clients vary widely in their needs so our experienced specialists will always take the time to understand your individual case and provide tailored advice to help you achieve the best possible outcome. Among the people we advise are:

• disabled adults and their carers
• the elderly and their care needs
• Court of Protection / best interest cases
• deprivation of liberty cases and appeals
• people seeking medical treatment to which they are entitled

The Care Act sets out the criteria that govern your eligibility for care and the state’s obligations to provide funding. However, navigating its terms and accessing the funding and professional care itself can be complex and frustrating and with budgets everywhere under pressure it is not unusual for individuals and their families to find themselves being bounced around a system. We can help you make sense of the jargon and the technicalities and help you to find a solution that puts the vulnerable person’s needs at the centre of everything.

Our team can advise on a wide range of issues including:

• Eligibility under the Care Act
• Local authority funding and financial assessments
• Health funding for care under continuing healthcare provisions
• Challenging funding decisions
• Accessing professional support – what kind and how often
• Issues in relation to capacity
• Court of Protection applications with issues such as contact, treatment, accommodation and care
• Carer’s rights and assessment of carer’s needs including accessing the carer’s allowance
• Judicial review/complaints procedures in relation to all community care issues
• Issues in relation to provision of adult social care by the Local Authority
• NHS responsibilities for the provision of hospital accommodation, medical / dental / nursing or other services and facilities
• Equality and discrimination issues
• Access to information and records.